Suetonius Lives of Read by Derek Jacobi

NON- FICTION

BIOGRAPHY

NA633912D 1 Julius Caesar (Julius) 5:04 2 While he was aedile… 5:09 3 Having entered upon his consulship… 4:48 4 During this period he lost his mother… 6:35 5 As he thus stood… 4:44 6 In all the civil wars… 5:18 7 His stature is said to have been tall… 5:09 8 In his expeditions, it is doubtful… 5:18 9 The trespasses and delinquencies… 6:11 10 But the act of his which aroused the greatest censure… 6:39 11 In his last will, he named three heirs… 5:49 12 Octavius Caesar Augustus (Augustus) 5:25 13 Having entered into a confederacy… 4:36 14 He conquered, partly in person… 4:45 15 He divided the city into regions and districts… 3:10 16 Augustus continued. He corrected many… 5:17 17 For himself, he resolved to choose… 6:42 18 In number, variety, and magnificence… 5:31 19 He augmented the population of Italy… 5:53 20 How much he was beloved… 5:15 21 By Agrippa and Julia he had three grandsons… 4:21 22 In the prime of his youth… 5:51

2 23 He was by nature a very slight drinker of wine. 4:35 24 Eloquence and other liberal arts… 6:06 25 His death, of which I shall now write… 4:51 26 He died in the same bedroom… 3:04 27 Caius Tiberius Nero Caesar (Tiberius) 5:54 28 His first service in the wars… 5:28 29 In this condition he continued almost two years… 5:12 30 After two years he returned from Germany to Rome… 4:56 31 Tiberius continued. The cause of Tiberius’s long demur… 5:28 32 By little and little he showed his princely majesty… 6:28 33 All the while he was Emperor… 6:30 34 His cruel and unpliable nature was apparent… 4:59 35 In person he was heavy-set and powerful… 5:23 36 Caius Caesar (Caligula) 5:28 37 He accompanied his father… 5:07 38 The Spintriae, those panderers to unnatural lusts… 6:22 39 With all his sisters, he lived incestuously… 5:31 40 He would not permit any to die quickly… 5:30 41 He levied new taxes… 4:55 42 In his march to Rome… 5:20 43 By diligent practice… 6:52 44 Tiberius Claudius Drusus Caesar (Claudius) 5:17

3 45 At length Caius Caligula, his brother’s son… 5:31 46 In taking honours upon himself he was sparing… 5:13 47 He was at all times most solicitous… 6:03 48 In his early youth he was twice married… 5:22 49 Being entirely enthralled by these freedmen… 4:55 50 There arose no suspicion too absurd… 3:34 51 In his youth, he attempted to write a history… 4:30 52 Nero Claudius Caesar (Nero) 5:01 53 He made profession that he would govern… 5:08 54 Among the other liberal arts which he was taught… 4:04 55 After this, he appeared at all the public games… 4:46 56 Besides the unnatural abuse of freeborn boys… 3:41 57 He commenced making a pond… 4:49 58 Nero continued. His mother being used… 5:00 59 The twelfth day after the divorcement of Octavia… 5:04 60 When he received word that Galba… 5:22 61 But recovering from this violent mood… 6:59 62 Servius Sulpicius Galba (Galba) 4:40 63 For eight years he governed… 4:57 64 A rumour had been raised before his arrival… 4:55 65 As he was offering sacrifice… 5:50 66 Marcus Salvius Otho (Otho) 4:45

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67 Upon the day fixed for the enterprise… 4:34 68 My father, Lenis… 3:58 69 Aulus Vitellius (Vitellius) 5:21 70 When news came to him… 4:28 71 He was given to excessive feeding… 5:21 72 He advised the senate to send ambassadors… 3:06 73 Tiberius Flavius Vespasianus Augustus (Vespasian) 5:41 74 After the deaths of Nero and Galba… 5:58 75 The city of Rome being much blemished… 5:38 76 To all ranks of men he was most liberal. 6:12 77 Titus Flavius Vespasianus Augustus (Titus) 5:06 78 Besides his cruelty… 6:09 79 Titus Flavius Domitianus (Domitian) 4:24 80 He exhibited naval fights… 5:27 81 But he did not long continue… 4:58 82 Becoming both hated and feared… 4:57 83 He was killed in the forty-fifth year of his age… 4:27

Total time: 7:13:35

Cover picture: Augustus, , AKG Images 5

Suetonius Lives of the Twelve Caesars

CAIUS SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS was largely in his narrative than the forum or the born around 69AD (the year of the four camp. We do not get a complete picture of emperors). With Tacitus, he is one of the Roman society. Instead we see the homely, two main sources for the early Roman the ludicrous, the horrendous: Julius Caesar empire. But where Tacitus (writing Annals trying to disguise his baldness; Augustus and Histories) was an out-and-out historian, adopting platform soles so as to appear Suetonius’ instincts are those of the gossip taller; the luxuries provided (and consulship columnist. Lives of the Caesars is tabloid planned) by Caius for his horse Incitatus; journalism 2000 years ahead of its time. and the failure of the collapsible boat Suetonius was well placed to pick up constructed by Nero for the murder of his gossip. His father commanded a legion for mother. Otho in 69AD, and he himself entered the But Suetonius offers us more than imperial civil service, which gave him access entertainment. He is objective and non- to imperial libraries and archives. He was judgmental where Tacitus is biased and dismissed by Hadrian for some indiscretion censorious. And he reminds us, usefully and involving Hadrian’s wife Sabina, which is unfashionably, that individuals in history do probably why he quotes documents make a difference. It is hard to read the lives verbatim for Julius and Augustus, but not of Julius and Augustus, and believe the for the later emperors. Mediterranean world would have turned He is not interested in political or social out exactly the same with two different history, giving us instead a series of intimate individuals in charge. memoirs – indelible portraits drawn with the skill of the cartoonist who differentiates The Emperors individuals by stressing their most Despite Suetonius, it is arguable that Julius prominent characteristics. The banqueting and Augustus were not really emperors, hall and the bedchamber figure more though they did call themselves ‘imperator’ 6 (meaning ‘commander’). Julius was consul AUGUSTUS for life and dictator for life, and Augustus (born 63BC; princeps 31BC–14AD) always called himself ‘princeps’. By the time Augustus was born Caius Octavius, taking of Tiberius the word ‘imperator’ had come the name Caesar Octavianus when he was to mean ‘emperor’, so the other ten rulers adopted by his great-uncle Julius, and the certainly were emperors. title ‘Augustus’ from the senate after bringing peace and prosperity to the Greco- JULIUS (born 100BC; dictator 46–44BC) Roman world. Cold, ruthless and perhaps The life and the death of Julius Caesar make unlovable, he was also patient, efficient and sense if we remember three things about energetic. Possessing, as Julius had not, a him. He was intensely ambitious. He was very strong instinct for self-preservation, he clearsighted enough to see that political did not claim dictatorial powers. He asked arrangements which worked for an Italian only for the power of a tribune (to veto any city-state were inadequate for governing an unpalatable legislation) and proconsular (i.e. empire covering half the Mediterranean. military) authority over those provinces with And he was not prepared to pretend that sizeable armies in them. With these powers, the autocracy he established was anything he ruled the Mediterranean world for forty other than an autocracy. He was too years. His dynastic plans were thwarted by honest, too impatient, and too proud to the deaths of his chosen candidates, and he make a pretence of consulting the senate would no doubt have been appalled to about things they had proved themselves know he was founding a dynasty which incompetent to deal with over the previous would include Caligula, Claudius and Nero. 60 years. This is why he was murdered. Augustus was to establish the same TIBERIUS (born 42BC; emperor 14–37AD) autocracy, but disguise it as the republic Under Augustus, Tiberius showed military restored. As an individual, Julius has been and administrative ability of the highest described as a ‘cool-headed man of genius order, his campaigns in Germany bringing to with an erratic vein of sexual exuberance’, the Rhine frontier a peace which lasted for and this is certainly the picture of him 150 years. He also showed himself loyal and presented by Suetonius. dutiful, retiring from public life to make the 7 way clear for Augustus’ chosen successors, Baiae to Puteoli, either to rival the bridge only to be summoned back when those built by Xerxes 500 years earlier, or perhaps successors died. As emperor he was no less in response to a prediction of the astrologer capable, at least until the closing years of Thrasyllus, who said that Caius ‘would no his life, and he left the Roman Empire, at his more be emperor than he would ride on death, prosperous and stable. He is said to horseback across the gulf of Baiae’. have vetoed a proposal to name a month after him, asking drily ‘And what will you do CLAUDIUS if you have thirteen emperors?’ His chief (born 10BC; emperor 41–54AD) fault was the severity he showed to senators Claudius in his youth suffered from ill suspected of disloyalty, and this has led to health, clumsiness of manner, and his being harshly treated by history – coarseness of taste. Augustus wrote of him notably by Tacitus, whose judgment (to Livia): ‘if he be right in his intellects, why Suetonius follows. should we hesitate to promote him by the same steps and degrees as we did his CAIUS (born 12AD; emperor 37–41AD) brother? But if we find him deficient in Better known as Caligula (Little Boot), the body and mind, we must beware of giving nickname given him by the soldiers of his father Germanicus. The deaths of his father, occasion for him and ourselves to be mother, and two elder brothers (for which laughed at by the world, which is ready Tiberius was, probably wrongly, blamed) left enough to make such matters the subject of Caius as Tiberius’ heir. He made a good mirth and derision.’ The decision was to start as emperor, but was then severely ill exclude him from public life, and he became seven months after his accession; after something of a domestic buffoon. When which he emarked on a career of cruelty Caius was murdered, the Praetorian Guards and caprice. His plan to make his horse found Claudius hiding behind a curtain. He Incitatus a consul may have been insanity – was dragged out expecting to be murdered, or a wry comment on the by now debased but was made emperor. He had the last value of the consulship. He also built a laugh on everybody by making a very good three-and-a-half-mile bridge of ships from job of it. 8 NERO (born 37AD; emperor 54–68AD) alienated the Lower Rhine army, which The star of Nero’s life is his mother proclaimed Vitellius emperor. Galba also Agrippina. Sister to Caligula and wife to refused to pay the praetorian guard a Claudius (whom she is believed to have reward for having deserted Nero. Finally, he poisoned), she was ambitious, ruthless, and adopted Lucius Piso as his successor instead determined that her son should be emperor. of Otho, the former governor of Lusitania. Had she known her own murder, on his Otho won the support of the Praetorians, orders, would be the result, that probably who then killed both Galba and Piso in would not have stopped her. Nero inherited the Forum. It is impossible not to agree her cruelty, but little else, his ambitions with Tacitus’ famous verdict on Galba: being restricted to competing in musical ‘everybody’s choice of emperor – too bad he and dramatic contests. Weak, shallow and became one’. vain, he demonstrates how badly the hereditary principle can work when applied OTHO (born 32AD; emperor 69AD) to an autocracy as absolute as the Roman Otho joined Galba’s rebellion against Nero, empire. What is surprising is how long it in the hope of becoming Galba’s successor. took for somebody to decide to get rid of When Galba adopted Piso instead, Otho him. The story that he set fire to Rome, and prepared to seize power himself. The sang of the destruction of Troy as he praetorian guard rebelled, Galba and Piso watched it burn, may not be true, but is were murdered, and Otho was acclaimed certainly in character. emperor. But the legions in Germany had declared for Vitellius, whose troops GALBA (born c.3BC; emperor 68–69AD) were already moving toward Italy. Otho When Gaul rose in revolt against Nero, the summoned the Danube legions, and rebels appealed to Galba (governor of part marched out to meet them. The Vitellian of Spain) to head the rebellion. Galba forces were stronger, but poorly supplied. agreed, gained the empire with ease, and Otho should have waited. Instead he then as easily lost it. He executed the insisted on action, apparently from a horror praetorian prefect responsible for his of civil war and a determination to bring it accession. His rewards to the Gallic states to an end as quickly as possible. After 9 a clear-cut but not overwhelming defeat, VESPASIAN (born 9AD; emperor 69–79AD) with reinforcements on their way, Otho Vespasian was not an aristocrat, and his committed suicide to avoid further wife was not even a Roman citizen. He was bloodshed. appointed to military command by Nero because he was competent and because Nero (almost certainly rightly) did not think VITELLIUS (born 14AD; emperor 69AD) someone of such low birth could have Aulus Vitellius has few claims to fame apart ambitions to become emperor. However, from his gluttony. According to Suetonius, Nero had no descendants, the year of the he was a favourite of three emperors: of four emperors removed several leading Tiberius, for his good looks as a boy; of contenders for the throne, and once Caius, for his skill as a charioteer; and of Vespasian had been acclaimed as emperor Claudius for his skill at dice. He presided by part of the army, he became a contender, over games held in Nero’s honour, in which and had no choice but to pursue his claim his chief function was to persuade a far with vigour. Vespasian was a man of great from reluctant emperor to take part himself. energy, humility and common sense, the After Nero’s death, Galba appointed best emperor Rome had had since Vitellius governor of Lower Germany, Augustus. Under him, the peoples of the believing him to be too indolent to pose any Roman world enjoyed political stability and threat. When Galba in turn was murdered, economic security. Had his son Titus not Vitellius was elevated to the position of died young, he might have founded a emperor by the ambition of the troops remarkable dynasty. under his command more than any ambition of his own. Out of his depth as emperor, he offered no serious resistance to TITUS (born 41AD; emperor 79–81AD) the challenge of Vespasian. Titus was the older son of Vespasian. In 70AD, while Vespasian was busy consolidating his position as emperor, Titus completed the four-year war against the Jewish Zealots, who had rebelled against 10

Roman rapacity and the demand for the Roman empire (the period from Hadrian emperor-worship. Titus captured Jerusalem, to Marcus Aurelius). Suetonius tells a story in the face of fanatical and heroic of Domitian’s father once laughing at him resistance, and destroyed its temple. He for refusing to eat some mushrooms, saying then became Vespasian’s colleague and co- that if he knew his fate, he would be afraid ruler, and on Vespasian’s death in 79AD, of the sword instead. The story, if true, is emperor. After only two years, however, he further evidence of Vespasian’s good sense. died unexpectedly of a fever. Suetonius does not accuse Domitian of poisoning Notes by Tom Griffith him, and this is in itself surprising in an age when unexpected deaths were routinely (and perhaps often rightly) attributed to poisoning. Titus was not hugely popular during his lifetime, but his reputation rose steadily during the ensuing tyranny of his brother Domitian.

DOMITIAN (born 51AD; emperor 81–96AD) Domitian was the younger, less favoured, son of Vespasian, and became emperor on the death of his brother Titus. He is known chiefly for his lust, gratuitous cruelty (one of his leisure pursuits was sticking pins in flies), and the reign of terror which he directed first against the Senate, but then widened to embrace all classes in society. When even his close friends and household servants no longer felt safe, they conspired to murder him, and so ushered in the golden age of 11

The music on this recording is taken from the NAXOS catalogue

SCHUMANN OVERTURES Julius Caesar Op. 128 8.550608 Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra / Johannes Wildner SCHUMANN OVERTURES Faust 8.550608 Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra / Johannes Wildner SCHUMANN OVERTURES Bride of Messina Op. 100 8.550608 Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra / Johannes Wildner SCHUMANN OVERTURES Manfred Op. 115 8.550608 Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra / Johannes Wildner FRANCK SYMPHONY IN D MINOR 8.550155 Royal Flanders Philharmonic / Günter Neuhold BEETHOVEN OVERTURES Egmont 8.550072 Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra / Stephen Gunzenhauser BEETHOVEN OVERTURES Consecration of the House 8.550072 Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra / Stephen Gunzenhauser

12 Edited by Sarah Butcher London Recorded by Ross Burman at RNIB Produced by Nicolas Soames Abridged by Suetonius T Lives of the Twelve Caesars om Griffith

Read by Derek Jacobi

Suetonius wrote his Lives of the Twelve Caesars in the reign of Vespasian around 70AD. He chronicled the extraordinary careers of Julius, Augustus, T Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian and Domitian and the rest in alking Book Studios technicolour terms. They presented some high and low times at the heart of the Roman Empire. The accounts provide us with perspicacious insights into the men as much as their reigns – and it was from Suetonius that subsequent writers such as Robert Graves drew so much of their material. , Made in Germany p ALL RIGHTS RESER Derek Jacobi is one of Britain’s leading actors, having made his BRO 2005 NAXOS mark on stage, film and television – and notably on audiobook. ADCASTING He is particularly known for the roles of I Claudius and Brother AudioBooks Ltd. AND COPYING OF . Caedfael, both of which he has recorded for audiobook. His VED . extensive theatrical credits, from London’s West End to UNA

Broadway, include numerous roles encompassing the whole UTHORISED PUBLIC PERFORMANCE, © 2005 NAXOS

range of theatre. He also reads The History of Theatre and THESE COMP The History of English Literature for Naxos AudioBooks. A AudioBooks Ltd. CT DISCS PROHIBITED

CD ISBN: View our catalogue online at . 978-962-634-339-5 www.naxosaudiobooks.com Total time 7:13:35